April 1903,] 



323 



Drugs and Medicinal Plants. 



8 or 10 leaves which produce the highest 

 quality of tobacco. When these ripen, 

 however, one or two suckers might be 

 permitted to start from the bottom so 

 as to furnish a second crop, which if 

 treated and fertilized like tlie original 

 plant yield a valuable aftermath. 



Harvest.— The removal of only ripe 

 leaves, though troublesome, yields the 

 best results. A ripe leaf could be easily 

 recognised by the trained eye. If the 

 leaf be pinched on the mid-rib folded 

 back, it should crack instead of bending. 

 Rarely more than two or three leaves 

 are ready to cut for a stalk at one time. 

 The leaves from different cuttings should 

 be kept separate. 



Curing and Fermenting.— Tobacco 

 must be dried slowly, and to this end 

 they should be hung in quantity close 

 together on poles in a roomy drying 

 shed, the position of the leaves being 

 reversed so as to produce a uniform 

 result. After this process of curing 

 must come fermenting. If properly 

 carried out it is often possible to eli- 

 minate many of the worst qualities from 

 a rank coarse tobacco by careful atten- 

 tion to fermentation. It is important 

 that leaves in the same state of dryness 

 should be fermented together. The com- 

 mon practice of piling the leaves in heaps 

 of two or more feet thick is to be recom- 

 mended. A thermometer will at once 

 indicate a rise of temperature above 

 which the heap should be broken up and a 

 fresh heap formed with the centre leaves 

 outside. Experienced men can say if 

 there is too much heat by merely plung- 

 ing the hand into the centre. A perfect 

 fermentation will develop colour, gloss, 

 flavour, etc. Two or thtee fermentations 

 are to be recommended. The mixing of 

 dry and damp tobacco will spoil the 

 whole mass. 



Seed. — To get good seed protect the 

 flowers of selected trees from cross ferti- 

 lization by means of paper bags. To 

 preserve seed mix with five times its 

 bulk of powdered charcoal aud put it in 

 a tightly corked bottle. 



Diseases. — To complete these notes on 

 tobacco, the following extracts are taken 

 from a Circular on Tobacco Disease by 

 Mr. T. Petch, Government Mycologist :— 



Root Disease. — This disease is known 

 as paluppu (Tamil), and is naively des- 

 cribed by the cultivator as " sudden and 

 premature ripening." It is certainly 

 sudden, and, from this point of view, 

 premature. The stem becomes discolour- 

 ed at the base, and all the leaves dry up. 

 The disease spreads to the surrounding 

 plants, killing them out in patches all 

 over the field. Frequently white ants 



attack the dying stem and eat away the 

 diseased parts. The distribution of the 

 diseases shows that it is caused by a 

 root fungus, and this is confirmed by 

 microscopic examination. Treatment. — 

 The diseased plants must be uprooted 

 and burned, and the places where they 

 are grown should be forked over with a 

 liberal dose of quicklime. 



Leap Disease.— Two kinds of "spot" 

 diseases {pulli) are distinguished by the 

 growers, but they do not consider them 

 very serious. In one form the spots are 

 brown and dry and sometimes zoned. The 

 fungus on these is Cercospora. A similar 

 fungus has been named Cercospora 

 nicotianoe in America, and Racibroski 

 decided that the Javan species was the 

 same, but the latter has recently been 

 named C rasiborskii on the ground that 

 the spores are twice as long. Spores of 

 Ceylon specimens developed in a tin are 

 half as long again as the Javan form, 

 but all these differences are merely 

 accidents of development, aud the fungus 

 is most probably the same in all cases. 

 In the other form of pulli the spots are 

 white. I have not yet been able to 

 determine whether they are caused by a 

 different fuugus. Treatment. — Bordeaux 

 mixture, copper carbonate, or sulphur 

 has been recommended for this disease 

 in America, but there are obvious 

 objections to the use of these. The 

 use of potash fertilizers has also been 

 advocated. 



" Ash."—" The worst form of all 

 enemies to tobacco is the disease called 

 ' ash ' (ahi or sambal) which attacks the 

 plant from the lowest leaf and works its 

 way upwards. The leaves are totally 

 covered with a white substance like ash, 

 and hence its name. The leaves attack- 

 ed by this disease become quite dry, and 

 retain their white ashy deposit even in 

 the cured state." — (C. Rasanayagam.) 

 This disease is caused by one of the 

 "mildews," the group of fungi which 

 includes the worst parasites of the 

 hop and the grape vine. Treatment. — 

 Sulphur is the recognised and proved 

 remedy for all the mildews. But it is 

 scarcely possible to apply this to the 

 tobacco leaf, if the leaf is to be used for 

 smoking afterwards. The '' ash " grows 

 on Cassia tora (Peti-tora S.^Vaddu takari 

 T.), C. occidentalis (Peni-tora S., Ponnan 

 takri T.), Tephrosia villosa (Bupila S.), 

 tSuphorbia hirta (Budadakiriya S., Palavi 

 T,), seedling tamarind (Siyambala S., 

 Puli T.), tumato, red pumpkin, and 

 slightly on Jatropha curcas. The first 

 four plants are worst affected, and they 

 are all common weeds. Now, it is un- 

 likely that the resting fruit occurs in 

 tobacco ; it probably is formed on one 

 of the common weeds which persist 



